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Well it really depends on your particular area is, what your specialities are and your personal preferences. Personally I wouldn't be without SuSE 9.1 Linux running Apache 2, Open SSL 0.9.7e, MySQL 4.1.7, php5 and whatever html editor. I use Bluefish myself. On hardware somewhere around 2ghz cpu with 512 - 1024mb ram and a 40gb HDD, or better specs. Around about that though, y'know. You could easily go plenty higher or lower depending on yer budget (thankfully the total cost of the software would be fook all though.

Whilst that setup is ideal for me though, it'd be completely useless to many others. I have no intention of using Flash so any old html editor will do me fine and the OS is ideal for rolling out the latest versions of Apache, OpenSSL, MySQL, PHP and so on with no hassle. Whereas with a windows platform you are highly likely to run into some difficulties running them all together in exactly the way you need. The same would be true of trying to run a lot of MS stuff on Linux too. Portability is much better than it used to be, but I'd still much rather run the programs on the OS'es they "belong" on.

Not sure if C (if that is of any concern to you) is any easier to use to write applications on one OS or another though. My friend says he's having considerable trouble with it on Windows, but I've no idea if he'd have the same trouble on his Linux too. He hasn't writing any C on his Linux OS yet.

If you tell us which areas you specialise in, I'm sure some of our more experienced and knowledgeable members could be of more help to you.

hmm well.. i dont really know what i will be using. i havent done too much with web development yet. just a little bit of html using notepad. my last computer, which was a hand me down, crapped out and i need a new one. i have been asking around and ive been told that macs are good for graphics versus a pc. but i figured i would get actual web developers input before i go out and buy a computer.

In web development, the aim of the game is fast download times. So fast download times means small graphics. Which means you don't need too powerful a pc to build websites. e.g. as a backup pc I use an 800mhz p3 with 512mb ram. It's old, but it works just as well as my Athlon XP2000.

The only note I would make on that is that occasionally when working with graphics you make a high quality version before reducing the quality for the web. So lots of ram (at least 512mb) is a good idea. Other than that, you can use any fairly new pc that you want. particularly if you cut down the numbers of running programs etc to make it run faster.

In a world without walls and fences - who needs Windows and Gates?! - Unknown Author "And there's Bill Gates, the...most...famous...man in the...ah...Microsoft." -- A TV commentator for the 2000 Olympics.

For webdevelopment you really don't need a fancy PC as dave mentioned above the only thing that you might want to consider is 512MB RAM and in my opinion any pc will work for web development.
The only time when you need a better PC with development taks in mind is ehn you are developing hard core programs using Java/C/C++ or any other serious programming language,since they require better CPU(for faster compilations) and huge RAM for faster deployment and loading of newer and big IDE's

Yeah, you can developer stuff on a 486 if you want to. But I suggest just making yourself (actually order the parts and assemble them) a quality machine for a low price. It is a far better deal then going through a major comp maker.

I have to agree that you do not need a fast, fancy machine to do WebDev. My primary machine is a AthlonXP 1500 with 768 RAM and a 40GB 7200RPM WD HDD with 8MB UDMA buffer but I am able to do my work on my ThinkPad (333 MHz, 256RAM) just as well. Again, as stated earlier, it really depends on what you plan to do with machine. If just WebDev, then just about any machine will get the job done, provided you have the space for whatever apps you plan to install.

Why buy a G5 when you can build a machine with 2gig of ram for less? Macs are pricy and you can't mod them without spending uber cash because hardware for them is pricy too. Look at the price of ram for macs, it is more expencive then ddr from any vender (or ddr2 for that matter I believe).

Originally posted by PeOfEo Why buy a G5 when you can build a machine with 2gig of ram for less? Macs are pricy and you can't mod them without spending uber cash because hardware for them is pricy too. Look at the price of ram for macs, it is more expencive then ddr from any vender (or ddr2 for that matter I believe).

If you get a mac, there goes your windows programming career down the drain. That also means, there goes your future money :P I've never heard of a corporation (other than Apple) that uses Macs as a standard :P